The latest news articles featuring BC Centre on Substance Use.
A COVID-19 Intervention Aiding the Mentally Ill and Homeless
January 18, 2022 | Psychiatry Advisor
A search of 19 electronic databases yielded 1 study that described a strategy that met the eligibility criteria of researchers seeking interventions to support self-isolation and mandated COVID-19 quarantine for people with severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI). Their findings were published i...
Opinion: It’s a new year, time for a new approach to end overdose
January 12, 2022 | Vancouver Is Awesome
It’s 2022, but when it comes to drug policy and overdose, it might as well still be 2016 given how little has been done to address overdoses. For that matter, it might as well be 1971, when the war on drugs was first declared by U.S. President Richard Nixon, for all that’s changed in the last ha...
B.C. paramedics, dispatchers responded to record-setting 35,525 overdose calls in 2021
January 12, 2022 | Global News
Paramedics and medical dispatchers in B.C. responded to a record-setting 35,525 overdose calls last year. It’s an increase of 31 per cent from 2020, said BC Emergency Health Services in a Wednesday news release. Surrey saw the greatest increase with a total of 3,674 calls — 50 per cent more...
Benzodiazepines ‘a major problem’ in illicit drug supply
January 02, 2022 | CBC News
Within a fraction of a second, Speedy says he knew something was wrong. In September, the longtime drug user, who didn’t want CBC to use his real name, unwittingly smoked fentanyl spiked with a benzodiazepine. He says he seized up and just managed to make it to a safe space before he lost co...
Failure to mention opioid crisis in ministerial mandate letters sends wrong signal, advocates say
December 21, 2021 | CBC News
By not explicitly mentioning the opioid crisis in any ministerial mandate letters, advocates are concerned the government is signalling a lack of commitment to addressing the issue. Since 2016, almost 25,000 people have died of apparent opioid toxicity deaths in Canada and experts anticipate fatali...
